There is a lesson to learn in every single day of our lives. I like to think that if there is no longer something to learn about then death will linger not far behind.

Yesterday, something happened where the 4 of us, my children and I, learned a pretty good lesson.

As I was going through the posts of a dear fellow steemian... Yes I am pointing at you @dandays!! ~ Dandays is one person that you wouldn't want to miss having around. He is a funny man, a great commenter, creates great content and will never cease to mention how lucky he is. Truth be told, I think he needs to say it more :p The man is lucky... Have you met his wife? Go get yourself acquainted to them both if you haven't wet. What are you waiting for? GO GO GO!

Anyways, as I was saying, I was going through his posts as I have started missing him. I owe the man ( he doesn't know it) some support and I really care to support. He's stuck around with me when I went MIA, and I really appreciate that. Thank you ^_^. He is so full of life it is contagious. You can not not be happy around him. Anyways.... Geeze dude....

As I was reading one of his posts and typed away a comment, I heard the kids starting to get more excited. I was hearing them but not paying attention. I started reading another one of his posts, wanted to see what was happening, wanting to catch up and all, when all of a sudden my son, Aaden (7), runs into the office room with a huge smile. I looked at him and noticed something was different but couldn't pinpoint it. He couldn't contain his excitement anymore as he jumped up and down and blurted out the words "I cut my hair".

WHAAA?

Then I saw it. He chopped off his bangs. Oh boy....OK. It's not so bad... You'd have to really look at it to notice it. I mean if you are looking at it quickly, you can't see it....right?

But then who comes running to me? "Me too, mommy! Me too! Look, look , look, me too!" In comes Frankie (3)showing off her new dew.

Frankie had a straight cut like that girl in the movie, Pulp Fiction. The long hair you are seeing are mostly from the back. So most of the side is cut short. The other side has only a few strands that are cut. Oooooh boy...

And they both were not the only ones to have a new haircut. This doll, had longer hair, now sporting a boy cut.

This horse decided to donate to violin bows. How luck the one to have a pink bow :p

And what happened to Emma (5)? She was able to stand her ground and refuse the free cut promo her brother so kindly offered. Smart girl.

So what do you do in a time like this? Is this something younger kids usually do? Should my 7 yr old know better?

This is the first time I had to deal with this, my sister telling me her stories but her kids were maybe 3 yrs old or 4. Friends telling me the same, one telling me her daughter was 7 too. I thought I was going to get away with it and have awesome kids... aside from Frankie... Frankie is special, awesome, but special. She is a special kind of messy child. Very curious. Grateful she hasn't gotten into anything in a long time.

The best thing I could think of during this time was to teach my son that actions have consequences and sometimes, those consequences costs money. He is still at the stage where he thinks $200 makes us millionaires. So how to explain it to him that now I have to pay for haircuts ( I would probably do worse than what he did). Thankfully, Frankie has many horses and dolls so I won't need to replace any and she wasn't upset at it.
And so, I put my son to work. Working to pay off those haircuts. I explained to him that we have budgets to maintain and that giving the kids haircuts wasn't planned for this week. There is a time to pay for different things and when we need extra things we have to work for the money to pay for it. I thought this was fair. Not as punishment but as a lesson to learn. My son also has destructive tendencies on little things but also has to understand that it costs money to fix the damages. So this is something that I thought would be a great learning curve for him and I am hoping that he will think a little bit more about his actions before letting impulse take over. Keeping in mind that he is 7 and he is a boy after all.

He did work to pay it off, he did the dishes, he swept the floor, he cleaned the living room, cleaned up the table, filled up the wood pile. I would have gotten him to do more, but he was starting to not pay attention anymore. His focus was no longer on what he was doing but more on being silly with what he could be doing instead. I thought it was a good time to stop. Pick my battles and work with it. I am certain this won't be the last time.

Other lessons learned; I learned that I just can't be on the computer for as long as I want to be. That kids are still kids no matter how responsible I think they are... or hope they are.
Emma learned to stand her ground and be strong, not letting her brother be the boss.
Frankie, I hope she learned to not do the same as her brother. I at least know that she learned that doll hair does not grow back.

So tell me, have you had this experience with your young ones?